What a cool scene. I've never been there but should try to make it a priority.

"Behind the Scenes at OERM" is an annual event. It rained all Friday night and while the weather was pretty good during the day Saturday the forecast was for showers. So the turn out was less than expected.

I was the pit guide in Carhouse 2 and a reasonable number of visitors donned hard hats and went under the Museum's Muni “Iron Monster” (one of a series of San Francisco streetcars so nicknamed because of their size and weight) on which I am working. When I finish this task the car will be fully renovated and will be in regular service.

And this post is also to show you my favorite OREM street scene taken at the end of an operating day a couple of weekends before Christmas. The conductor is on the ground watching that all the wheels go down the same track as the car turns off Broadway.

The light fixture above the car has 5 120V bulbs. The trolley wire is at 600V (5 X 120 = 600). That's how you know if the trolley wire is powered. In the barn can be seen the Descanso, a restored trolley funeral car. http://www.oerm.org/pages/lary_descanso.html

Marty Bernard
Perris, CA

I never knew stoplights existed like that in real life! I always thought they existed only in Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplain movies.

Where did they find the stoplight?

The Acme (yes, that's the name) Traffic Signal is one of several that were acquired years ago. Probably back in the late 1950s or early 1960s.

The Acme was developed in Los Angeles, patented in 1917 and first installed in Los Angeles in 1920.

Orange Empire currently has three installed at the intersection -- one of these has the controller box. The controller box is on the one in the photo and it is the black box on the mast.

These have that we have have the arms, and the lights. And also a bell that sounds. The arms can be folded in and can be set up not to operate at night.

I Googled and found this pdf file on the web:
http://www.ci.la.ca.us/ladot/TopicsAndTales/TrafficSignal1.pdf
It does not seem to linked from the current Los Angeles (city) DOT site -- but it is still on the web
It appears that this is part of a larger LA traffic control history is linked from the current LADOT website: “Transportation Topics and Tales: Milestones in Transportation History in Southern California”

I also found some videos on YouTube showing a restored signal in operation.

Regarding the 5 bulb light powered by the 600v. The light being on tells you the power is not off. The light being off may mean the power is off, but it may also mean a bulb is burned out. It is not a safety device.

Very true. If one of the five bulbs burns out all five go out because they are in series and you have to figure out, probably by trial and error, which one needs replacing. I think there are three five-bulb fixtures on the wire here at OERM so there is a way to double check.

Marty